1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for referencing consumer preference data and merchandise and service “popularity” according to human physical and emotional characteristics, traits and personal preferences. In essence an animate, or “HUMAN” cataloging and method/system for researching and locating purchasable items and preference data, rather than an inanimate one. This system and method would preferably be Internet based, presented as a special Internet address and destination, comprising a “search engine,” or searching means based on “searcher” or Internet user supplied human trait and preference data parameters.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current “e commerce” or computer based electronically transacted business options, and related inventions thereof; are limited in scope typically with regard to the indexing and cataloging of merchandise and services. Further, “search engines” familiar to Internet users, are limited often to search results based on correlation between words or phrases submitted by the user, relative to those assigned to Internet accessible sites and data banks.
In a society of individuals who make many decisions based on dynamics of personal competition and success, and interpersonal comparison, the need for a searching means to reference information based on traits and preferences of other individuals, and groups of individuals, would clearly be valuable and of interest to many. The most compelling lure of entertainment and advertising, is information about other individuals that might be considered “private” or personal, whether they be celebrities or not. Television programs and advertising that is “revealing,” especially those focused to the negative feelings and occurrences of others, are remarkably successful: “Rubber-necking” on a highway also demonstrates the public's often macabre fascination with the plight or misfortune of others. The same can be said with the public's fascination with the success of others, mostly relative to their own circumstances and personal esteem.
The means to search personal preference and “feelings” data of actual individuals, would allow the Internet user new options in discovering the behavioral and purchasing preferences of individuals similar to themselves, or similar to a person or “type” of person relevant to the user: Those of romantic interest to an internet user/searcher, and those who the Internet user may be competitive with, are two examples of searching parameter bases that may be relevant to a particular individual searching via such newly available means. Further, peripheral areas of interest may be discovered by users as they discover selected personal data about their designated “types” of people-leading Internet searchers to revelations steered by the options displayed by such a system and searching means.
For Internet advertising, the relevance of being able to target user determined and defined micro-demographics is invaluable. A searcher who has defined their own dynamics demographically, in order to accomplish their search, could receive selected advertisements in editorially prepared formats, to maintain the highest degree of personal relevance and potential interest, unlike the generally poorly focused myriad of solicitations broadcast to millions of Internet users and mail box holders.
To date, all demographic specific devises on the Internet are geared to “sampling” and looking at the Internet users from the data-seekers' vantage point. The present invention addresses the interest and need of the Internet user to personally discover discreet demographic preference and behavioral data relative to their own personal objectives and interests: An active demographic specific vehicle from the consumers' point of view, instead of a passive one where their activity and data is sampled and they are categorized and solicited according to the interpretation and interests of unseen others—typically larger Internet based firms and advertisers.